The services will be available to GPs and other primary care providers throughout Scotland, as well as the Scottish Prison Service Credit: Fllickr

The Scottish health service has fired the starting gun on the bidding process for a £65m five-year framework to provide managed services to GPs across the country. 

A tender issued by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) on Saturday outlines the organisation’s intent to find suppliers who will deliver patient administration and clinical systems. Additionally, the chosen providers will be expected to deliver a range of other services including implementation, development, testing, support and training, as well as “optional software modules”. 

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The services will be available to GPs and other primary care providers throughout Scotland, as well as the Scottish Prison Service. Through the framework, local health boards can, via NSS, award seven-year call-off contracts to their supplier of choice, with an option to extend such agreements by three further years. Such contracts can be awarded directly, or following the completion of a mini-competition process. 

Requests to participate in the tender must be received by midday on 24 July, and invitations to tender will be sent to successful interested parties around the end of August. All bidders must possess an ISO 27001 qualification or equivalent, as well as PRINCE2 badge and an ITIL qualification or their equivalents. They will also required to have an average annual turnover of at least £1.5m over the last two years. 

The framework, which will not be split into lots, is set for a five-year term, with a total spending pot of £65m. NSS is expecting to invite four suppliers to tender. 

“Price is not the only award criterion and all criteria are stated only in the procurement documents,” the contract notice says.